Radiation Hard Electronic Components: Multiple 180nm RH circuits and TCV’s via Texas Instruments for incorporation by Rockwell Collins

Communication systems being developed for tactical space and missile defense applications must include radiation hardness as a reliability requirement. These systems will use software-defined modems and programmable encryption circuits based on high-performance integrated circuits. But with the required increases in density, performance and complexity of integrated circuits, also comes increased vulnerability to radiation. Without hardened integrated circuit components available for system design, radiation-hardening must be accomplished through reduced use of digital programmable circuits, circuit redundancy, and shielding. This adds significant size, weight and power which in turn reduces system performance and reliability. Silicon Space Technology has demonstrated that astute modifications to a commercial CMOS process can yield significant improvement to the circuit’s radiation hardness. Establishing a radiation-hard process capability at Texas Instruments will enable supply of radiation-hardened ASIC’s, memories and standard products required for systems being developed for MDA. A direct benefit of this work will be the development of an efficient system for providing a large library of high-performance, radiation-hardened products. In addition, this technology will provide the DPSRAM and DSP parts required by Rockwell Collins to enable their development of a small, low-power, low-weight, cost-effective, and radiation-hard programmable software-defined radio data link solution.